I have the pleasure of being a co-mentor with Mindy to Jillian Bettan. Jillian is a Speech and Hearing Science like Mindy and me. The first topic we discussed was how Jillian became interested in the major and why she chose it. Jillian shared how she has always known she wanted to work with kids in a school, however, did not want to be a teacher. One of Jillian’s moms’ friends offered for Jillian to shadow her to see what a typical day was like in the shoes of a speech therapist in a school building. Jillian felt an instant connection and fell in love with the profession. Jillian saw how much of an impact the speech therapist was able to have on the kids and knew it was the right career path for her. I related to Jillian because I also became interested in becoming a speech therapist due to wanting to be in a school and helping kids but did not want to be a teacher. I also was able to shadow a speech therapist because one of my mom’s friends is a speech therapist. I too instantly fell in love with the profession and field and knew that was what I wanted to go to school for.
We then talked about what organizations we are involved in on-campus and what we would like to join. Jillian has joined NSSHLA, the National Student Speech Language Hearing Association. I am also a part of this organization and we discussed how we enjoy the organization but find it hard to find time to watch/attend the meetings after we have done school work the whole day before the meeting. We also discussed how we all attempted to attend the virtual involvement fair however we were all unsuccessful at using the website and finding organizations we wanted to become a part of. We discussed how the website would not load and there was no easy way to find what we were interested in. Jillian did express that she wanted to join other organizations but does not know how. I hope to help Jillian find other organizations by sharing what organizations I am part of and helping her become a part of the organization if she is interested in joining it.
Next, we talked about why Jillian chose ACES. Jillian shared that when she was applying to college, she wanted to become involved in a community, meaning joining honors or scholars. Jillian read through what ACES scholars and was instantly drawn to the community service and working in schools. Jillian also learned about ACES by talking to Kim at Buckeye Bound. Jillian wanted to make friends and saw this as a great opportunity to do so. I can also relate to Jillian here because in high school I completed a lot of community service and wanted to continue to do this in college. I also saw this as a great way to make friends who already shared common interests with me. We asked Jillian what her favorite thing about ACES is so far and she shared that it has helped her make a great group of friends with whom she can talk and hang out, even though she lives on a different floor than them.
After discussing ACES, we talked about what Jillian’s dream job is and why. Jillian wants to work in an elementary school as a speech therapist. She wants to interact and help elementary school kids and provide them with the best speech therapy she can give to them. Jillian plans to go to graduate school after she graduates in New York. Jillian hopes to do this because she is from New York and does not want to pay out of state tuition for grad school.
We then discussed what has been Jillian’s favorite thing about this semester at Ohio State. Jillian shared that she enjoyed visiting the football stadium, touring it, taking pictures, walking on the field, etc. Jillian said that this allowed for college to feel normal for a second and like what the college experience was before Covid.
I plan on using the information that I have learned about Jillian from this interview to use our similarities to connect and help guide her through this weird time in our college careers. I also hope to use the information on classes and professors in the speech and hearing major to help guide and answer any questions Jillian has regarding the major.